


Steady The Rights And The Wrongs

by SunSpell80



Series: The Weight of Us [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Lydia makes Scott watch The Notebook
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-15 02:29:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2212386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunSpell80/pseuds/SunSpell80
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Scott makes a "Nice Guy" argument and Lydia isn't having it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steady The Rights And The Wrongs

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Teen Wolf belongs to Jeff Davis. "The Weight of Us" belongs to Sanders Bohlke.

_July 27 th, 2012 ~ Summer between 10th and 11th Grade_

It happened at the grocery store, of course. All awkward encounters happened at grocery stores. Scott was completely engrossed in his list, trying to decipher his mom’s handwriting (she should have been a doctor, not a nurse – it was practically illegible) and even his werewolf reflexes couldn’t save him from running right into a person as he turned the corner.

“Oh sorry, sorry, I –” He started. “Lydia?”

Lydia scowled up at him, rubbing her nose delicately. “Excellent observation, Scott.” She said his name in that particularly sharp manner she always did when she was about to get snippy at him. “Honestly, the past six months as a werewolf have really heightened your senses, haven’t they?”

Scott felt a pang of remorse. It was the first time he’d seen Lydia since the end of school and he’d nearly broken her nose. “Sorry, I was trying to read this grocery list, my mom has the worst handwriting. The second-to-last word might as well be in Arabic.” He joked, trying to salvage the situation.

Nimble fingers snatched the list away and Lydia squinted at it. “Paprika,” she announced, handing it back to Scott. “It’s not actually in Arabic, you’ll be glad to know. I’ve been teaching myself Literary Arabic this summer.”

“Wow, really?” Scott needed to stop being surprised about the things Lydia did. Of course she was teaching herself Arabic over the summer. She was Lydia Martin.

“Arabic and Mandarin. Mastery of languages is a coveted skill in today’s global society. Besides, I have a natural affinity for learning languages. I may as well make use of it.”

“May as well,” Scott agreed, though he was pretty sure Lydia had a natural affinity for _everything_.

“Plus,” Lydia continued in a heavier voice. “With Allison gone indefinitely and Jackson gone for good, it’s not like I have much means of entertaining myself right now. During the day, at any rate.”

Scott decided he wasn’t going to think very hard about what that last comment meant. He felt a weight settle deep in his stomach at the mention of Allison. By the look in Lydia’s eyes, Scott guessed she was experiencing a similar feeling talking about Jackson. For the first time since that strange, ill-advised moment they’d shared in Coach’s office, Scott felt a connection to Lydia. “Yeah, I’ve been pretty bored too. Stiles left a couple of weeks ago, I’ve just been going to work and hanging out with my mom, mostly.” He’d been spending some time with Derek too, but Scott didn’t know what Lydia’s feelings were toward the alpha currently. “Pretty lame, I know.”

Lydia cocked her head to the side. “Stiles left? Where did he go?”

He forced himself not to smile obnoxiously. It still struck a funny chord to hear Stiles’s name come out of Lydia’s mouth after all these years of her refusing to acknowledge his existence (and Scott’s too, but the difference was he hadn’t really _cared_ ). Scott was slowly getting used to it though and he knew Stiles would not appreciate him reacting like a dork whenever Lydia needed to talk to Stiles about something. _Dude, seriously, play it cool,_ he could hear Stiles begging in his mind. “Nowhere far, just a summer camp south of Sacremento.” Scott explained. “He always goes there for at least half the summer to work as a camp counselor.”

“Ah,” Lydia nodded, a smile tugging on her mouth. “Stiles the camp counselor. Why is that so easy to envision?” She laughed.

Scott’s automatic reaction was to defend Stiles, to tell her that not everyone had wealthy parents to bankroll their entire lives (he _hated_ judging people by how much money the did or didn’t have, but he was wiling to go there if he had to. For Stiles). Then he realized Lydia’s humor was fond, not mocking. “Because Stiles is essentially an overgrown child,” He answered her question. “That’s why he’s so great with kids – he’s basically one of them.” God, next thing he knew he was going to be telling Lydia what a wonderful father (and husband) Stiles would make one day. A change of topic was in order. “So, what are you up to today?”

Lydia shrugged, motioning to her shopping cart full of organic food. “Running errands. for my mom, then….nothing until seven. I have a horrendous headache, so I’m not going to get much studying done today.” She regarded Scott, as if suddenly seeing him in a new light. “Do you want to come over?”

“Me?” His heart rate shot up. Oh god, was Lydia propositioning him? No, no, that would be awful and horrible for a thousand reasons. “I um, are you sure that’s such a good idea?” Scott stammered out.

Two perfectly-shaped eyebrows arched up at him. “Relax, Scott.” Lydia told him dryly. “You’re my best friend’s ex-boyfriend, I can keep it in my pants if you can.”

Lydia’s astounding ability to make a person blush on cue was better than anyone else that Scott knew. “No, I wasn’t assuming…” except that he totally was. That was probably wrong of him, it was just he’d never known Lydia to have any platonic guy friends aside from Danny “…well, it’s just, what happened in Coach’s office…?”

“Oh, that.” She brushed a section of hair over her shoulder. “That was…a ‘power-play’, I believe someone called it. I wanted to make Jackson jealous, punish him for flirting with Allison. So I made out with you, smudged my lip gloss so it would be _obvious_ to everyone on the lacrosse field and didn’t deny it when Jackson accused me.”

“Oh.” Scott echoed. So that’s how Stiles had found out.

Lydia shrugged nonchalantly, her slightly tinged cheeks giving her embarrassment away. “It’s not something I would do to either you or Allison again. The two of you didn’t mean to me what you do now. As it was, I regretted it. Jackson didn’t react at all the way I expected, things were awkward between you and I, and Allison…yes, I was angry she was getting Jackson’s attention, but I shouldn’t have done it. I can’t believe I did that to my best friend.”

“Me either.” Scott admitted and Lydia’s mouth fell open. “No, I didn’t mean that! I can’t believe _I_ did that, to _my_ best friend. But I was feeling upset about Allison breaking up with me and it was the full moon and…” Scott shrugged. “That doesn’t excuse it though.”

Lydia watched him with a strange expression. “Scott,” she said carefully, almost gently. “You know I’m never going to date Stiles, right? That’s – it’s not going to happen. So you really don’t have to feel guilty because it’s not like he ever had a chance with me anyway.”

Now the defensiveness surged through. “You wouldn’t say that if you really knew him,” Scott almost snapped at her as _Scott McCall, friend to all_ gave way to _Scott McCall, best friend to Stiles and everyone else can fend for themselves_. “Stiles is great, the best actually, he would make a way better boyfriend than Jackson, honestly, and he’s so brave – he’s risked his life for me so many times when I probably didn’t deserve it and –”

“Scott.” Lydia said again, holding up a hand. “I know Stiles is great. Really, I do. I wish I’d gotten to know him earlier, because he’s a great person and I’m lucky to have him in my life. And your little display of loyalty was frankly nothing short of adorable. But Stiles just isn’t my type. I’m not attracted to him – I’m sorry, it’s as simple as that. He’s cute, but I don’t do _cute_. And besides, I’m not looking for a boyfriend right now. I can’t do the whole having feelings thing right now, and I definitely can’t deal with someone else’s feelings right now, which means I _certainly_ could not deal with dating Stiles. Does that make sense?”

All of Scott’s sanctimonious anger faded and he nodded, scratching his head sheepishly. “Sorry. You’re right, I just–” _I just never understood what the hell Stiles saw in you for all these years until the past few months, and the more I find out about the real you, the more perfect I realize you and Stiles are for each other._ “You’re right. And I’m sorry for bringing up Jackson…now I feel like a dick.”

“That was a bit of a dick move.” Lydia agreed, too cheerfully. “Which means you are going to have to make it up to me by letting me pick out the movie we are going to watch this afternoon, and buying the snacks.”

“Sounds fair.” Scott conceded. “Do you know what type of movie you might want to see?”

The smile Lydia gave him sent chills up and down his spine. “Oh, I have one in mind.”

She flounced away and Scott knew he was in trouble. He also knew that he should lay their previous conversation to rest, but eleven and a half years of being _Scott McCall, best friend to Stiles_ urged him to call after her, “Okay, I know Stiles isn’t your type, but hypothetically if he were to come back from camp twice as hot, would you consider–”

“Scott. Drop it.”

(Stiles came back from camp _three_ times as hot and Lydia did a double take the first time she saw him in the light of day. But that is a story for another day.)


End file.
